Ms Ellen
( Ireland )
Apr 01, 2012 | - "If you would like a shopping tour with a side of culture, choose this....otherwise keep searching"
- I'm disappointed to have to give this tour such a low rating as I was so excited about visiting the Great Wall and had a pleasant experience on another tour booked through this website, but unfortunately this tour did not meet my expectations and I am glad I only paid the discounted price. While I got to see and walk a section of the Great Wall and was happy with my time there, I felt that the whole tour was scheduled around stopping at various shopping destinations rather than being focused on the main attraction. As part of a small group (6 in total) and having stopped twice to experience 2 "museums" prior to the Great Wall, to be told we had only 60mins to climb, view, and descend (of which the climbing and descending took 40mins) we asked if it was possible to skip the last shopping stop on the tour which threw our guide into a tailspin, she was not impressed and clearly misunderstood our request, as she merely delayed the time we would stop at the last "museum" and then proceeded to abandon us after this stop because it was close to her home...with a Chinese driver who spoke no english...and asked because it was now rush hour did we really want to go back to our hotels?? well yes...and 2 hours later I eventually arrived!! Before taking this trip I noticed signs for 'no-shopping' tours and now that I understand what this means I would definitely recommend to avail of these....so you can marvel at the Great Wall without being pressured into jade statues/ceramic pots/silk covers along the way....and just as a PS I found the Ming Tombs a little boring, you cannot actually enter any tombs as they have not been excavated,so its merely a stop to see some shrines built on the site of the main tomb
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